encounters cafe offers young adults a casual, relaxed spot to enjoy refreshment, worship, and informal conversations with GOD and each other. As part of GODencounters gatherings happening across the nation, look for an encounters cafe to open up near you giving you an opportunity to invite friends to a warm ambiance to refresh, relate, and relax.

Sheri Denny, Lane Campbell, and the team from Texas Conference did a phenominal job putting together the encounters cafe for IGNITION. encounters cafes like this one, although each with their own flare have opened alongside GODencounters gatherings. Go to the GODencounters website for more information.

Music, poetry, art, and comedy are familiar staples to the encounters cafe, offering an array of creative expressions of worship. Special thanks to Elia King and Nick Zork for leading our worship sets at IGNITION, as well as the artistry of True!mprov and Rik Swartzwelder, director of the award winning short film, The Least of These.

Volunteers are the secret ingredient to the vibe at the cafe, offering their willing service to the patrons making for a great experience for all. Everything from decor, to serving beverages, to set up/take down is done by young adults.

Would love to hear about your experience of encounters cafe at IGNITION or if you have experienced it as part of another GODencounters gathering. Post your thoughts here or share your interest to take part this summer in any one of our coming cafes.

11 Responses to refresh, relax, and relate @ encounters cafe

Dear Allan,
Hi!^^ I am glad that GOD has blessed U with the ability and the passion to be such a wonderful volunteer, leader, and mentor to this genneration of young adults. I have personally seen the fruits of all of your labor and have been very blessed by your leadership in the church. There are rarely any programs made specifically for young adults and what your team has done is an opening to many more doors for young adult ministry. Thanks for your devotion to all the young adults and thank you for listening to GOD’s voice and caring out his work so loyaly. You are an insperation to many and your strong relationship and love for GOD shines through your actions. Thanks so much!
Personally, I am passionate for children ministry. This may not catch U by suprise because….I am a child!!! LOL! Thanks or leading out in my Sabbath School and for making it such a lively and Jesus filled place. I am so blessed to have a wonderful Daddy like you and I love U soo much (and I know a TON more people who do to!)

I was greatly blessed by the relaxed atmosphere where we could come and process the days events. The music was top notch. Had some great planned activities but also enough time to just sit and build new friendships and deepen old friendships. What a great blessing!

I enjoyed being at the encounters cafe! The cafe provided a very relaxed/warm/comfortable environment for friends to gather and chat, listen to inspiring Christian music, and worship God in a variety of ways. Special thanks to all those who put in the long hours to put it together!

I just want to give a big thanks to Sherri and Lane for a great job in setting up our encounters cafe’ in Dallas. I know you guy’s really hard on this and it showed. Thanks for all you and many other people on Allan Martins team for what you are doing for young adults throughout the North American Division. We are all grateful and your efforts are making a difference for the kingdom of God.

Thanks so much for your commitment and availability to God’s Spirit! The overall experience and environment facilitated at the Encounters Cafe gave my wife and I a concrete visual of the kinds of things God had been laying on our hearts to provide for young adults in our local context. By the end of February, those dreams actually became reality when we launched Project 242, which involved providing a similar setting and encounter with God that we saw in Dallas. (The pictures on our MySpace give some hint of that. =)) In short, thanks for letting God use you all!

Thank you Sherri and Lane (and others)! Encounters Cafe in Dallas was one of the most inviting and comfortable environments to come and worship God. We initially had no idea what to expect, but after coming the first night, we went every single night. Thank you for all your hard work in putting it together!!! May God bless you all!

I was blessed and that is an understatement. I had heard about Encounters Cafe, but really had no idea what to expect. The questions that were poised to encourage conversation were thoughtful and helped me get to know people I might not have connected with. The relaxed atmosphere and candid dialogue and worship music were a blessing that seemed to put me in a relaxed frame of mind. I felt like God was present in the room “hanging out”. Thanks to all who created this for us.

Just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed the cafe experience while I was in Dallas–so much so that we’re attempting our own “cafe night” here in New York City on April 11. HOpefully the locals won’t riot when they find out we’ll be caffeine free!! For more info on our event, check out: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sda/ At any rate, thanks for being a blessing to the young adult community!!

I am very glad that the Lord has blessed Allan Martin with the gift and passion for working with young adults and trying to fulfill their needs. This group many times seems to be neglected, and many of them tend to either stay very involved in the church or leave after they have finished high school or academy. This God encounters café is a very relaxed environment that helps young adults to be able to totally be themselves and associate with other people their own age that are going through all kinds of different struggles and challenges in their lives. I am glad this is going to be in different locations this summer, we need to get our young adults involved in the church and fellowshipping. I went to ignition in Dallas this past February and I personally enjoyed it. I saw a lot of my friends in seminary and made other friends while I was at this event.

I had a wonderful time in Dallas at the CAFE. It was a new and different experience for me. I am looking forward to participating whenever you made it to the South Florida area. May God richly bless your ministry.